


swipe right (into my heart)

by ailurea



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern, First Dates, Humor, M/M, Tinder, kind of
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-01
Updated: 2019-09-01
Packaged: 2020-10-04 21:18:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,185
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20477627
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ailurea/pseuds/ailurea
Summary: Keith should know better than to use Tinder in public.After all, the super hot catfish you just swiped left on might be standing right behind you.





	swipe right (into my heart)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [leftishark](https://archiveofourown.org/users/leftishark/gifts).

> for sharki — thank you for making the world a better place in many, many ways. happy incredibly belated birthday!! ♥
> 
> i went into this trying to write a mundane coffee shop meet awkward and i think i got 50% of the way there;;; i hope you enjoy it ♥

Sometimes Keith forgets how nosy his roommates can be.

Those are the times that he lets his guard down, the times he feels comfortable enough to kick off one and a half socks and sprawl across the living room couch while making questionable life decisions on Tinder.

And then, of course, Lance ruins everything by sticking his head over Keith’s shoulder and into his space, squinting judgmentally at the screen of Keith’s phone.

“I know you’re lonely and all,” Lance says before Keith can tell him to go away, “but there are some really shady people on there.”

“Fuck off, I’m not _lonely_,” Keith says. “And you meet shady people in real life, too.”

“Yeah, but these guys are, like, catfish shady,” Hunk says from over the top of Keith’s head. “I mean, look at him!” He points at the guy currently on Keith’s screen.

Lotor, 29, has a profile full of glamour shots like he’s some kind of supermodel. The last picture has him leaning against the shiny dark purple hood of a car, finger curled around his hair and shirt scandalously unbuttoned.

“Tell me he doesn’t give you serial killer vibes,” Hunk says.

“Eh,” Keith says. Lotor’s expression does look vaguely menacing, but it could easily just be the sharp wingtip eyeliner. And also maybe how his skin looks vaguely purple in the light.

“Come on, dude,” Lance says. “He would totally lie about his identity and then drag you into an alley and murder you.”

“That’s what I have a dagger for,” Keith says.

Hunk frowns a deep, worried frown. “You’re not seriously thinking of going out with him, are you?”

“Not that it’s your business,” Keith says, “but no. And not because of the V-neck thing,” he adds before Lance can crow. “It’s because he looks like the kind of guy who drives around a Tesla with the license plate _TESLA_.”

“Instant dealbreaker,” Hunk agrees.

“Wait,” Lance says. “Why is that bad again?”

Keith rolls onto his side so that they can’t see his phone anymore. “Can you all stop staring now? It’s my life, I’ll date assholes if I want to.”

“You deserve better than an asshole, asshole,” Lance says.

Keith doesn’t _deserve_ anyone, but he knows better than to start a conversation he doesn’t actually want to get into. “I deserve to Tinder in peace,” he says as he swipes left to reveal another profile.

Ryan, 25, engineer and amateur videographer who also enjoys volunteering at the local animal shelter and petting dogs. Keith can get behind that.

“Hunk, do something!” Lance says.

“I mean, we can’t stop him if he really wants to,” Hunk says. “But please don’t get catfish murdered, man.”

“Oh my god.” Keith puts his phone down and half rolls over just to make sure they can feel the full force of his exasperated glare. “I’m not going to get catfished, okay? I have some common sense.”

“You know what makes people lose their common sense?” Lance says. “Desperate loneliness.”

“What the fuck,” Keith says. He doesn’t even know why Lance thinks he can get on Keith’s case about this, seeing as he and Hunk are just as single as Keith is. “I am not lonely, or desperate. I am perfectly happy.” 

Lance gives him a look like he clearly doesn’t believe him.

Which, fine, Keith will admit that people don’t use Tinder unless they’re at least a little bit lonely, but that doesn’t mean he’s desperate, damn it. He can be casual about it. “I’m just using this to socialize. For fun.”

“Are you even hearing yourself?” Lance says. “Socialize, for fun? Did an alien take over your brain or something? Are you a pod person?”

Keith wonders what it would be like to actually be good at lying, because it clearly isn’t one of his own strengths.

What he is good at, however, is avoidance.

“I’m going to go in my room if you don’t stop nagging me,” Keith says.

Hunk nudges Lance. “C’mon, don’t make him a bigger hermit than he already is.”

“Ugh, fine, whatever,” Lance says. “But when your sad ass gets catfished, I am definitely going to say _I told you so_.”

“Can’t wait,” Keith says, picking up his phone again.

If nothing else, he has a finely honed sense of self-preservation. It’ll be a cold day in hell before he ever lets himself get catfished.

* * *

“Dude, really?”

Keith instinctively shields his phone with his body, but it’s too late—Hunk is at his shoulder, looking at him with sad disappointment. Keith’s been spending the last few weeks Tindering in public instead of in his apartment, just to avoid this exact situation. He thought he’d be safe in the line at Bobalicious, but he’d forgotten that Hunk and Lance’s internships have wrapped up and they’re back at work here.

Keith tilts his phone away from his chest, just enough so that he can see what was on the screen.

_It’s a Match!_ it proclaims, showing his picture and that of Rolo, 25. Rolo’s profile was lackluster (_sup dawg_, it said, and nothing else) but his pictures were all right. In hindsight, Keith probably shouldn’t be using Tinder while he’s thirsty. 

“He seems nice,” Keith says defensively.

“No, I mean, you’re still using that app?” Hunk says. “We thought you gave up on it after you went out with that guy who only talked about bouldering in Nevada and how Patagonia is, quote-unquote, _hella dope_.”

“That was one data point,” Keith says, ignoring the uncountable other bad Tinder dates he’s been on. “Aren’t you late for work?”

Hunk whips his head towards the register like he’s just remembered why he was at Bobalicious in the first place. “We’re talking about this later!” he says as he scurries off.

Keith shakes his head and turns back to his phone as he moves forward in line. He dismisses the match screen—he lives his life with a personal policy of never messaging first—and his breath hitches for half a second.

The next guy is pale-haired and buff and beautiful with a pinking scar across the bridge of his nose, and in any other circumstance, he would make Keith stop and stare without shame. In this circumstance, combined with his bio that says _former astronaut/current rocket scientist and cat dad_, he couldn’t be a more obvious catfish. Keith swipes left immediately and pats himself on the back for not letting his thirst take over.

“Hard pass on that one, huh?” an amused and unfamiliar voice says from behind him.

Keith turns around to give the stranger a hard pass on his personality, but his words die in his throat because Takashi, 28, former astronaut/current rocket scientist and cat dad, is standing right behind him.

Keith looks back to his phone to double-check the picture, but since he’s already swiped left, it’s been replaced by the bio of another man with surfer hair.

“Um,” Keith says.

“Sorry,” Takashi, 28, says, silver glinting off a prosthetic arm as he scratches the back of his head with a shy smile. “Didn’t mean to make things awkward. It’s okay that you’re not attracted to me, I just thought it was a funny coincidence that I was standing right here. Anyway, uh. We can just... pretend this didn’t happen.” He’s getting progressively redder in a way that’s strangely endearing on such a large man, and Keith finds that he doesn’t want the conversation to end.

“I thought you were a catfish,” Keith blurts.

Takashi blinks at him. “A—“

“No one can look like a male swimsuit model and be a rocket scientist and be a cat dad,” Keith says, entirely reasonably in his opinion. Now that his brain has recovered from _hot guy is talking to you don’t let him leave _panic, he realizes that it’s still totally possible this guy’s a catfish, just a really good-looking one lying about his entire life story instead of his appearance. “It’s one out of three, at most.”

“Um.” Takashi laughs. “Thank you, I think. But I promise I’m real. Should I show you pictures of my cat or something?”

Keith definitely would not mind being proven wrong. “Do you have any?”

“Of course I do,” Takashi says, pulling out his phone. Then he stops and stares at it. “Wait, no, sorry, I just got a new phone and something got messed up with my backups so I don’t have any photos. I have some on my computer at home, though. That wasn’t a proposition or anything, by the way!”

Well, that’s disappointingly suspicious of him.

Keith’s thirsty lizard brain wants to give Takashi and his impressive pectorals a chance, but Keith is stronger than his thirst today—and also Lance is standing right there behind the register, waiting to laugh at him—so Keith hums and turns back around.

The line’s moved forward while they’ve been talking, and Keith is next up to the counter. Instead of greeting him, though, Lance looks over Keith’s shoulder and waves. “Hey, Shiro! We don’t usually see you today!”

“Work schedule changed,” Takashi says, and Keith frowns at him.

“Keith,” Lance says in a tone that he’d use with a child, “this is Shiro, one of our regulars. Be nice and don’t scare him off, okay?”

“I’m always nice,” Keith mutters. But there’s a reason that when he’s working at Bobalicious during the school year, he prefers not to work the register or otherwise do anything that requires him to act friendly all day. He doesn’t know how Lance does it. Just thinking about having to deal with this many people makes him want to lay down in bed and never get up.

Lance rings up his order of vegetarian cold noodles and a rose milk tea without asking because Keith is a creature of habit, and Keith is lucky enough to grab a small, two-person table next to the window right as the couple sitting there leaves.

But that means that there are no other tables left. And, of course, after Shiro (or whatever his name is) has placed his own order, Keith makes the mistake of making eye contact as Shiro surveys the room for a spot, and Shiro seems to take that as an invitation to wander over.

“So,” Shiro says, hovering sheepishly by the table with his _6_ placard. “Any chance you’re willing to believe I’m not a catfish and have a lunch date right now?”

“Nope, you’re still super sketchy,” Keith says, but he waves a hand at the opposite chair, inviting Shiro to sit. Thirsty Keith hasn’t taken over, he tells himself. He’s just being nice. “Might be fun, though. I’ve never gone on a date with a catfish before.”

“Wait, what about me is sketchy?” Shiro’s practically pouting as he sits down, which Keith definitely should not find cute on a grown man. “Is it seriously just because I don’t have cat pictures?”

“First of all, no cat owner can leave their house without cat pictures,” Keith says. “It’s illegal.”

Shiro’s lip quirks in what’s probably an innocent expression of amusement but makes Keith sweat inappropriately. “Noted.”

Keith clears the horniness from his throat. “Also, I thought your name was Takashi.”

“It’s Takashi Shirogane, but my friends call me Shiro.” Shiro fiddles with his placard as he speaks. “I would’ve had to change my name to Shiro Shirogane to make it show up on the app, though, and that seemed kind of ridiculous.”

“Right,” Keith says. That sounds reasonable. Keith’s not desperate if he thinks that’s reasonable, right?

But _Takashi Shirogane_—the name snaps into place almost immediately. The first man to Kerberos, and one of the youngest astronauts to ever enter space, at that. It’s a name Keith knows because he’s on track for a career piloting experimental spacecraft himself, but he doesn’t think most other people would really recognize it. Maybe that’s the perfect kind of name for a catfish to choose?

“I’ve heard of you,” Keith says, crossing his arms and leaning back in his chair. “So you really are a former astronaut, huh?”

“You know who I am?” Shiro says with clear surprise, and Keith isn’t sure if that’s confirmation that he’s lying or that he’s telling the truth.

“I read about you in school,” he says. “You were on the Kerberos mission, right? On the three-man mission with the Holts?”

“Yeah, Sam and Matt,” Shiro says with a comfortable familiarity. “I don’t know if you keep up with all that, but they’re both still doing missions with the Garrison. I’m not involved anymore, though.”

If Shiro is a catfish, Keith has to admit that claiming to be retired from it all is an easy way out of having to talk about things that he doesn’t actually know about. But then again—Keith’s eyes bounce off the silver of Shiro’s prosthetic, resting on the table, and wonders if he may be telling the truth, and that there’s more to the story than Keith or anyone else knows.

Before Keith can ask, Romelle swings by and drops off their food and drinks with a wink at Keith, and he rolls his eyes at her. Across from him, it looks like Shiro’s gotten the passion fruit green tea with aloe—respectable—and a plate of vegetable dumplings.

“So,” Keith says once Romelle’s off again. “Have any stories from space you can share, Shiro Shirogane?”

Shiro laughs on a sigh. “You still think I’m a catfish, huh?”

“Well,” Keith says, “I was promised a date full of your wildest catfishing stories.”

“I’m not sure I promised that,” Shiro says, smiling as he punches his straw through the lid of his cup, “but sure, why not? Could be fun.”

He stares at the table for a moment, drinking, and Keith focuses on his own food and drink to avoid fixating on Shiro’s lips wrapped around a straw because the man is just trying to enjoy his drink in peace and Keith is the one being a creeper.

“How much do you remember about the Kerberos mission?” Shiro says finally.

“There was a lot of hype about it because it was the farthest anyone had ever gone,” Keith says. “And you were one of the youngest pilots, too. Then there was some kind of communication glitch, right? The Garrison lost contact right around the time you got to Kerberos, and everyone thought you’d crashed until communications started again a few months later.”

“Good memory,” Shiro says, sounding impressed.

Keith flushes despite himself and shoves noodles into his mouth to hide it while he recovers. It’s nothing to be impressed about. “Anyone who’s into space travel would remember. It was a big deal.”

Shiro looks like he wants to comment on that, but instead, he says, “Well, the Garrison didn’t give the full story. You ready for this?”

Keith slurps up some tea. “Hit me.”

“I was actually kidnapped by aliens.”

Keith swallows a boba whole, and his mind takes a second to realize that it slid down smoothly and he actually isn’t choking to death. “You what?”

Shiro grins. “Do I win best catfish story yet?”

“I need to hear the story first before I can tell you,” Keith says, even though he can already tell that this is far and away the wildest story anyone’s ever tried to sell him on. “Did you say _kidnapped by aliens_?”

“Yep,” Shiro says. He wolfs down a dumpling. “Terrifying aliens, too. They were huge and purple, and apparently part of some kind of evil universal empire. They had a lot of other aliens as prisoners.”

“For what?” Keith says, baffled. What would an alien species have to gain by randomly kidnapping other alien species?

It occurs to him that he might be getting too invested in this story.

Shiro’s smile dims as he rolls a dumpling around on his plate. “It was entertainment for them, mostly. Pit fighting, for example.” He shrugs his prosthetic shoulder.

Keith can feel everything left unsaid. Maybe the exact details of the story are fake, but there are very real memories being recalled behind Shiro’s eyes that remind Keith too much of the pain he sees from his dad whenever there was someone he couldn’t save.

Keith doesn’t know exactly what to do, but he knows that he needs to tear Shiro away from it.

“How’d you all escape?” Keith says.

Shiro blinks at him, and Keith can see his eyes refocusing on the present.

“Us all—oh, it was just me,” Shiro says. “They found us after we landed on Kerberos. When we saw them coming, I got the Holts to enter cryosleep to hide their vitals and I went out to distract them. Didn’t stand a chance when they decided to take me.”

“But you and the Holts all came back together, didn’t you?”

“On the ship I was on, there was a Galra—that’s what the aliens are called, by the way—who was part of a rebellion, and he helped me escape,” Shiro says. “That’s when I ran into Allura. She helped me get back to Kerberos, and after I woke Matt and Sam up, we all came back to Earth. I’ve been helping her out ever since.”

“Allura,” Keith says. “Allura d’Altea?”

“That’s her,” Shiro says before stuffing an entire dumpling into his mouth.

Allura d’Altea is the CEO of Altea Tech and an engineering genius developing a series of experimental spacecraft. Shiro is claiming that the CEO of the company that Keith is currently interning for is literally an alien.

“You’re telling me,” Keith says, “that the internet is right and that Allura d’Altea is actually an alien just trying to get back into space.”

“She’s an Altean, actually,” Shiro says, an amused smile playing on his lips.

Because Altea Tech. Right.

“So are you secretly an Altean too?” Keith says.

“Human born and raised,” Shiro says. “I guess the arm’s Altean, but I don’t know if that qualifies me.”

“Eh.” Keith takes a slurp of his tea. “You’re trying to help her get home. I’d say that makes you an honorary member.”

“Well, I’m actually trying to help her take down the evil empire that captured me and, coincidentally, destroyed her home,” Shiro says. “But close enough.”

“Wait,” Keith says as he realizes what Shiro’s implying. “Do you actually work for Altea Tech?”

“I do.”

Keith is suddenly reminded that this is just a catfish story, because Shiro is a catfish, and he is speaking in metaphor about his life and emotionally heavy experiences he went through, or something. He knows this for a fact, because Altea Tech is by no means a large company, and Keith’s absolutely sure that he would’ve run into Shiro in the past couple months if he actually worked there.

“What do you do?” Keith says.

“Um, a little of everything on the engineering side,” Shiro says. “I worked on the designs and helped build out some of the initial prototypes on the more experimental spacecraft. I’ll be starting as a test pilot on them soon.”

This is totally a lie, because Keith is also a test pilot for Altea Tech’s experimental spacecraft, and if Altea Tech is small, the group of test pilots is even smaller. It’s literally impossible for Keith to have never seen him around.

But Shiro’s so earnest, is the thing.

Even when he’s telling objectively unbelievable stories, Shiro feels more real and open than pretty much anyone that Keith’s gone out with, ever. And Keith has been on many shitty dates with people just trying to impress him, but it doesn’t feel that way with Shiro at all. Catfish or not, Keith likes him more than he’s liked any first date.

He can practically hear Lance crowing at him already.

“Are you okay?” Shiro says, watching him with what appears to be genuine concern.

Keith drowns himself in his drink to hide his realization that he is, for once, actually on a date with someone he likes.

And that the someone he likes is a fucking catfish.

“M’fine,” Keith mumbles. “So, uh, you were kidnapped by aliens, and then you found Allura, who is also an alien, and then you brought her back to Earth where you now work for her company which is all a front to get back into space and save the universe.”

“What do you think? Second date material?” Shiro stuffs another dumpling into his mouth.

“Depends,” Keith says. “If I’m your boyfriend, does that mean you’ll take me to space with you when you leave?”

Shiro chokes a little on his dumpling and washes it down with tea. “You really do like space, huh?”

Keith shrugs. “When I was little, my dad always said that my mom was up in the stars. I told him I’d go out there and bring her home. I know what he meant now, but the dream always stuck with me.”

“It’s a good dream,” Shiro says softly. “If you still want to go when the time comes, I’d take you.”

Keith doesn’t know how Shiro can sound so soft and serious about hypothetically fucking off to space with a guy he just met swiping left on him on Tinder, but it’s flustering. Shiro is flustering.

Keith goes to take another sip of his drink to avoid Shiro’s eyes for a moment, but the cup is empty, and he’s left awkwardly staring at the last few drops that he can’t get with the straw.

“Anyway, uh, we’re getting ahead of ourselves here,” Shiro says, stacking his own empty cup on top of his plate. “I can’t take you to space if you don’t know how to fly a ship. You might get stranded.”

Keith snorts. Yeah, because that’s how they’re getting ahead of themselves here. “You should probably be more worried about the fact that you might not be able to stand me for more than thirty minutes.”

“Well, my ex-boyfriend kept looking at me like I’d had a psychotic break after I told him what happened, so you’re already doing better than he did,” Shiro says brightly. “Even though I don’t know anything about you yet. How do I know you’re not the catfish?”

Keith’s first instinct is to ask who the ex-boyfriend is so he can fight him, because regardless of the actual facts of the story, it’s clear that Shiro’s been through a lot, and what he really needs is someone to listen to him and talk to him like anyone else.

Maybe Keith can’t fight the ex-boyfriend yet, but the other stuff—that he can do.

“You’re right,” Keith says instead, keeping his tone light. “I planned all of this, down to the second. All part of my grand scheme to get you to take me to space.”

Shiro sighs and shakes his head. “And you would’ve gotten away with it too, if not for those flight tests at Altea Tech.”

“I’m not too worried about that part,” Keith says.

Shiro raises his eyebrows. “Oh?”

“I’m actually an intern there,” Keith admits. “At Altea, I mean.”

“Oh!” Shiro blinks in clear surprise. And then, “An intern?”

Keith bristles. He’s heard that tone of surprised disbelief before from people who didn’t expect him to be good enough for Altea Tech. It stings to hear it from Shiro, who doesn’t even know him. “Yeah, I am.”

“Oh, so you’re…” Shiro clears his throat. “You’re in college, then?”

Keith may have spoken too quickly. It doesn’t sound like Shiro’s reacting to the intern-at-Altea thing.

It sounds like Shiro’s reacting to the _intern _thing.

On the plus side, Keith’s never seen a sketchy guy have qualms about the age thing, so this at least confirms that Shiro’s a decent guy. On the downside, it’s always a toss-up if a guy who has qualms about the age thing will be able to get over it or not.

“I’m twenty-one.” Keith crosses his arms. “I’ll be graduating next year.”

“Oh, wow, congratulations,” Shiro says, and it seems to be more out of reflex than anything else. His fingers are tense around his cup.

“If you want to leave now, I won’t stop you,” Keith says. “I’m old enough to handle myself in a relationship, but if you feel all guilty about the age thing, there’s nothing I’m going to be able to do to convince you that it’s fine.”

“Relationship,” Shiro repeats.

Keith mentally whacks himself—who’s getting ahead of himself now? “I’m just saying, hypothetically, that if you were interested in getting to know me better and now you’re not-interested, that’s fine.”

“Are you interested in getting to know me?” Shiro says. “I mean, you were the one who swiped left and I just kind of invaded your table. I’m probably not making a great impression.”

“No, you’re fine.” Keith toys with his empty cup. Regardless of how much he believes Shiro’s stories—and he wonders what it says about him that he’s ready to believe all of it, just because of Shiro’s sincerity—Shiro seems kind. That’s probably the most important part covered. “I’d like to get to know you better. But it’s not going to turn out well for either of us if you’re not comfortable with it.”

“I don’t know what I am,” Shiro says. “Or what I’m doing. The truth is, I haven’t dated in a really long time. My friend set up the profile for me, but after that, I never really looked at it at all.”

“Guess it’s hard to date when you’re going back to space soon,” Keith says.

Shiro blinks at him, then smiles slowly. “That’s definitely true. But I guess it’s a different story if my boyfriend wants to go with me,” he says, and his tone is both meaningful and light.

Keith really, really needs to stop blushing for no reason.

“You said you could fly,” Shiro says. “You’ve messed around with the flight sims at Altea Tech, then?”

“Uh.” Keith fidgets. “I’m a test pilot, actually.”

Shiro stares at him in open surprise. “You’re Keith!”

Keith startles at his name. “Ah, yeah.” There must be some element of truth to Shiro’s story, then—the recognition is definite proof that Shiro actually works at Altea, at least. “Allura’s mentioned me?”

“I worked on the designs for all the ships you’ve been testing out.” Shiro leans forward, an intensity in his eyes that’s both captivating and terrifying. “I’ve seen all your flights, and I’ve run through all your logs. You’re seriously amazing.”

“Oh, um.” Keith doesn’t think he’s ever blushed so hard in his life. Then again, no one’s ever praised him so bluntly and sincerely, other than his dad. “I’m definitely not—that. But—“

“Let me tell you a secret.” Shiro scoots his chair closer and leans his arms on the table, but he doesn’t actually lower his voice. The glimmer of excitement is still in his eyes. “Allura puts up the opening for test pilot interns every year, but she’s never actually accepted anyone before. Until you. You should’ve seen how excited she was when your application came in.”

“My application was also really not that great,” Keith says, and that, he knows, is an objective fact.

His resume shows that he’d realized in his first year that working part-time to put himself through Garrison Space Academy was killing him with stress, and he’d transferred to the local Garrison City College instead. Because of the awkward enrollment situation, he wasn’t able to find an internship his first summer, and the second summer the only offers he got were for unpaid internships, which his financial situation had laughed at. He’d spent the summer full-time at Bobalicious instead, which was great for his bank account, but not great for his resume.

“Allura goes to a lot of aerobatics competitions to scope out the talent,” Shiro says. “We saw you fly at the Garrison Cup the week before your application came in. I wish you could’ve seen the hearts in Allura’s eyes. It was all I could do to stop her from hunting you down and kidnapping you right there and then.”

“What?” Keith says faintly. He’d been so desperate to find a job that wanted him. The thought that someone could be equally desperate to hire him because of something he’d done for a club activity seems completely unbelievable.

“I’m serious!” Shiro grins. “She was trying to figure out the best way to approach you when your application came in. I was working on a ship, and I banged my head when she ran in screaming. I had a bruise for a week.”

Keith just gapes. That can’t be real, can it? Shiro’s probably just trying to make him feel good about himself. How could Allura d’Altea personally be that interested in him after seeing him fly once for a college club?

“You could ask her yourself if you want,” Shiro says, resting his chin on the palm of his hand. “She’ll probably get mad at me for telling you, but she won’t lie about it.”

“I can’t ask her about that, oh my god.”

“Why not?”

Keith makes a vague, aborted motion with his arm. “I don’t want her to think I’m fishing for compliments or something.”

“Looks to me like you could do with more compliments,” Shiro says, but it’s gentle, and his smile is soft.

No one has ever been so unashamedly nice to Keith in his entire life, and he has absolutely no idea how to respond. He thinks he stammers out some thanks, but he isn’t sure what actually comes out.

“I’m looking forward to flying with you,” Shiro says. “Now that the designs are solid, Allura’s letting me out of the basement, so I’ll be doing more piloting from now on.”

“The basement,” Keith repeats.

“Where all the other aliens hide,” Shiro says, matter-of-fact. “Allura’s a shapeshifter, but some of the rest of them… there’s not much you can do about purple skin, you know?”

“Okay, wait, I thought you just came back with Allura.” Keith tries to recall the earlier details of the story. He’s pretty sure other aliens descending onto Earth hadn’t come up. “Where are the purple aliens coming from?”

“Uh—”

Shiro’s phone buzzes on the table, and he jumps before he checks it. “Ah shoot, I have to start heading back. Did you drive?”

“I walked.” Keith checks the time on his own phone and winces. It’s only a fifteen-minute walk from Altea Tech to Bobalicious, which is fine since it only takes him half an hour to eat, but he’s spent more time with Shiro than he’d thought.

Not that he minds.

“Let me give you a ride?” Shiro stands and grabs both of their piles of trash. “We’re heading the same way anyways.”

“If you don’t mind,” Keith says, trailing him to the door.

“Not at all.” Shiro grins. “Then I can answer your question.”

Shiro’s vehicle is, like him, built like a tank. It’s white and silver with orange accents, sleek and a bit rotund. Keith’s seen it in the garage at Altea Tech and wondered what it was used for.

The answer, apparently, is Shiro’s boba runs.

“So,” Shiro says after they’ve pulled out of the parking lot. “About your question. Really, really long story short, Allura’s the princess of an ancient alien kingdom—“

“Of course she is.”

“—and her dad made five of these highly advanced ships that look like lions and can kind of stack together like Power Rangers to make a mech.”

Shiro glances at Keith like he’s waiting for Keith to say something, but Keith doesn’t know what it is that he should be saying. “Are the lion spaceships supposed to explain the other aliens?”

“Uh, they’re an important part of the explanation,” Shiro says. “Sorry, I thought you’d have more questions about them.”

“You’re telling me a story about literal aliens, and you think I want to know more about the lion-shaped spaceships?”

Shiro laughs. “Okay, fair point. So when these lion spaceships join together, they make this mech called Voltron who’s supposed to have the power to defend the universe. Ten thousand years ago, Voltron failed to stop an evil empire, and Allura’s dad scattered the Lions across the universe to hide them. The empire’s still active today, and Voltron is the only one that can stop them.”

Keith knows how sci-fi stories go, and Shiro is nothing if not a sci-fi protagonist. “You’re about to say that there’s a lion ship thing on Earth, aren’t you?”

Shiro grins. “It’s actually in this desert.”

“You’re shitting me,” Keith says.

“I’m not!” Shiro laughs again, his eyes crinkling with it, and Keith just has to stare at how it lights up his entire face. God, he’s pretty.

Shiro flushes. “Oh, um—thank you.”

What is with Keith’s brain not having any control over his mouth today? But it’s too late to take it back now, and he doesn’t want to, anyway. “You must have heard that before.”

“I’ve heard _hot_,” Shiro says, flushing more. “But that’s, uh, that’s a new one. Not bad, just new.”

“Well, you are,” Keith says.

“Thank you,” Shiro says, and clears his throat. “Um, anyway. I’m just gonna gloss over a lot of stuff, but there’s this rebel organization that’s been working against the empire for years—“

“Did you steal this from Star Wars?” Keith says.

Shiro grins. “Life imitates art, something something. This group’s called the Blade of Marmora. A few decades ago, one of the Marmora generals came to Earth and found the Blue Lion here. They couldn’t figure out what to do about it until they found me on the Galra ship and figured that between me and Allura, we’d be able to figure out how to use it. And now some of them have come to help us.”

“So they sent you back here specifically to save the universe,” Keith says.

“I think it’s a bit less cool than you’re making it sound,” Shiro says as he turns into the parking lot of Altea Tech.

“Shiro, you are literally saving the entire universe.” Keith doesn’t understand why he has to argue this. Isn’t the point of a catfish story to be as cool as possible? “How can that possibly be any less cool than it sounds?”

Shiro laughs and shuts off the engine. “I guess so.”

Keith unbuckles his seatbelt and tries to think of a casual way to ask for Shiro’s number when Shiro speaks up again.

“Before you go,” Shiro says, “I just wanted to say that I know we just met, but I really like you, and I want to get to know you better.”

Keith deflates. He knows a let-down speech when he hears it. “But?”

“But,” Shiro says, “I think that if we did want to try something, it’d be better if we did it after your internship ends.”

“I get it,” Keith says. It could get weird for their professional relationship. And he understands if Shiro wants to avoid letting anyone find out about them before he’s ready.

Honestly, it’s probably better for Keith, too, if he takes more time to learn about who Shiro really is before diving headfirst into a relationship with him.

“It’s not personal,” Shiro says, even though Keith doesn’t see how it can be anything but. “I’m sure you’ve noticed that the test pilot team isn’t huge. There aren’t a lot of people Allura trusts to be able to help her achieve the things she wants to do. We’ll be working pretty closely together, and I’ll be honest with you, I think that the work we’re doing is extremely important. Way more important than my relationships.”

On a purely emotional level, that stings. They haven’t even been on a proper date yet, and Shiro’s already giving him the caveat that he’s always going to come second to work.

But somehow, Keith likes Shiro all the more for it.

Keith understands passion for work—his own dad lets nothing stop him, not even the fear of death, and as much as Keith hates every moment of it, he’s also filled with endless admiration and respect.

He wishes that he had a cause he believed in half as much.

“I can see how saving the entire universe would win out,” Keith says lightly, and hopes that’s enough to show that he understands.

Shiro fidgets. “That doesn’t mean we can’t be friends or anything. You know, talk. Text. Get lunch.”

Keith raises his eyebrows. “Completely platonically.”

“Exactly,” Shiro says, with a shy little smile.

Keith hums and pretends his heart isn’t beating out of his chest. “And how do you feel about platonic kissing?”

Shiro pauses for a heart-stopping moment, and Keith opens his mouth to take it back, but then Shiro just shakes his head, smile widening. “And what does platonic kissing look like, exactly?”

Keith leans closer. “I could show you. If you want.”

Shiro tilts his head, leaning closer to match. “Just one,” he says, breath hot against Keith’s lips.

It was never going to be just one.

**Author's Note:**

> **[after-credits]**
> 
> “Dad?” Keith stares, because that is definitely his dad standing there in the middle of the restricted section of Altea Tech.
> 
> Keith is technically not supposed to be here, but most everyone else has gone home, and he’s just been lounging in Shiro’s office, waiting for him to finish work before they grab dinner. (It’s been less than a week, and their not-dating life looks more and more like dating every day.)
> 
> Regardless, Keith’s dad is definitely not supposed to be anywhere close to here.
> 
> “Keith!” His dad smiles broadly and hauls him in for a cheerful hug. “You knew about this, huh? Couldn’t even be bothered to tell your old man?”
> 
> “Knew about what?” Keith croaks as the life is squeezed out of him.
> 
> His dad looks at him like he’s dense. “Your mother.”
> 
> Keith stares back at him with the exact same expression. “My what.”
> 
> “She sent me a message that—”
> 
> “Keith!” Shiro instantly stops and leans to the side after he rounds the corner to the hallway, and Keith only sees a flash of purple before Shiro’s larger frame covers the person behind him.
> 
> Purple, like a purple alien? Like Shiro has not been lying, and there are actually purple aliens, on Earth, hiding in the basement of Altea Tech?
> 
> “Do you mind waiting in my office for a few minutes?” Shiro says. “I just need to—”
> 
> “Ah, it’s fine, we don’t need private time,” Keith’s dad says. “Let the kid see his mom.”
> 
> “His—” Shiro starts, stunned, but the alien steps around him.
> 
> She’s definitely purple and has pointed ears and strange hands and is wearing some kind of ceremonial-looking blue-grey robe, but most importantly, she looks very, very familiar. And also his dad is making huge heart eyes in her direction.
> 
> Her catlike eyes widen when they lock on his. “Keith?”
> 
> “He got big, didn’t he, honey?” his dad says, and he makes it sound so normal, like it’s Keith who’s returned home from college instead of his mom, the alien rebel, who’s returned to Earth to help save the entire universe.
> 
> Yes, Keith thinks. This is all perfectly normal.
> 
> Then he faints.
> 
> \----
> 
> inspired by [this tweet](https://twitter.com/taylor_stag/status/1067199832408739847?s=12) (thank you to arwen03sabrina for helping me find it!!)
> 
> thank you to robin/stardropdream for providing rolo’s tinder profile, and allie/artenon for the title!
> 
> and thank you so much for reading! ♥  
i love, appreciate, and reply to all comments, even if it takes me a little while to get to them :)
> 
> please come say hello!  
[twitter](https://twitter.com/ailurea) // [pillowfort](https://www.pillowfort.social/ailurea)


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